"One person in Helsinki can quickly write the core of a sophisticated operating
system."

--John Warden, lead attorney at Microsoft

Recent:

Linux 2.6.26-rc2

,----[ Quote ]
| About 45% architecture updates (counting the include files too), about 30%
| drivers, and about 25% odds-and-ends. The odds-and-ends are mainly
| Documentation, filesystems (mostly cifs) and core kernel (scheduler
| updates etc).
|
| The dirstat and shortlog is appended, because while not exactly tiny it
| should still fit easily in the lkml size limits. And if you read the
| shortlog and get the feeling that most of it is pretty boring small
| details, you'd be right. There is little exciting there.
`----

,----[ Quote ]
| The linux-next tree is an interesting experiment. It is, for all practical
| purposes, making the development cycle longer: since linux-next exists, the
| 2.6.27 cycle has, in some sense, already started. Linux-next also does
| something which kernel developers have tended to resist: causing the
| stabilization period for one development cycle to overlap with active
| development for the next cycle. In the past, it has been argued that this
| kind of overlap will cause developers to prioritize the creation of new toys
| over fixing the problems with last week's toys.
`----

,----[ Quote ]
| Andrew Morton noted, "putting arm into linux-next means that Stephen (and
| git) handle the merges rather than having me (and not-git) do it. Which helps
| me. I expect that linux-next will get a lot more cross-compilation testing
| than -mm. Which helps you." Greg KH added, "getting your stuff into
| linux-next would provide a public place for others to base off of, making it
| easier for them to send patches to you ensuring that they apply properly.
| Which in the end, will help others be able to contribute easier, and help you
| by getting patches you do not need to rebase yourself." Â* Â* Â* Â*
`----

,----[ Quote ]
| Change is inevitable, and how we deal with it defines us. In the Linux world
| change happens fast, probably faster than any other kernel in history. The
| Penguin is Evolving. How should we deal with this high-speed development? Â*
`----

,----[ Quote ]
| Linux next started off as a 'dream' of kernel maintainer Andrew Morton who
| has noted that few kernel developers are testing other kernel developers'
| development code which is leading to some problems. Â*
|
| Morton has proposed a "linux-next" tree that once per day would merge various
| Linux subsystem trees and then run compilation tests after applying each
| tree. While that may sound simple enough, in practice it's no small task. Â*
`----

,----[ Quote ]
| "Andrew [Morton] was looking for someone to run a linux-next tree that just
| contained the subsystem git and quilt trees for 2.6.x+1 and I (in a moment of
| madness) volunteered. So, this is to announce the creating of such a tree,"
| began Stephen Rothwell, resulting in a lengthy thread discussing the current
| Linux kernel development process. Â* Â*
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,----[ Quote ]
| "I re-ran some statistics the other day on our kernel development rate, and
| changed my formula after Andrew accused me of severely undercounting the rate
| of change," noted Greg KH during a discussion about the stability of the
| Linux kernel while undergoing significant changes. Â* Â*
`----

,----[ Quote ]
| Kernel release 2.6.24 came out on January 24, just before linux.conf.au
| began. Corbet estimates 2.6.25 will be finalised sometime around April.
|
| That rapid cycle represents an astonishing volume of new code. "We are adding
| about 2000 lines of code to the kernel every single day of the year, without
| exception," Corbet said. "Nobody can really keep up with this [on their own]
| any more. It's an amazing process, and it seems to be working."
|
| The project which those numbers immediately bring to mind is Wikipedia, which
| uses similar open source principles, along with an "anyone can contribute"
| ethos.
`----